08/27/2022
A lot of people ask why frenchies cost so much... Here you go.....
Structure and health over color
Quality French bulldogs from well established and reputable breeders are NOT CHEAP!
There is a great deal of time, research, effort and expense involved in raising a French or english bulldog litter. It can EASILY cost around $5,000- $9,000 to breed, deliver, and raise a litter.
If you consider the initial investment for the breeder to buy a quality well bred female; this on average is anywhere from $5,000-$40,000 or more!
Then you have the cost of raising that female on a quality diet, vet care, and grooming supplies which in an average year that can add $1,000-$2,000 per dog.
When the female finally reaches breeding age (IF she turns out to be breeding quality) you then begin your search for the right stud. This can consume countless hours of researching pedigrees and healthy lines.
Once you find the right stud you pay another $1,500-$25,000 for a stud fee!
In MOST cases the stud is in another state or country. You then have to pay to have the semen shipped to you. If this is a state to state shipment the average cost is about $200 per collection and overnight shipment; and we always do two inseminations on our females. If the semen is coming from another country it has to come cryogenically frozen and shipped in a nitrogen container which means you have to pay for the return shipping of that container, as well. Overnight cryo shipments from Europe are $1,000 and that does not include the cost for the stud owner to have the semen frozen! That can add another $1,000-$1,500 to the stud fee and the shipping. If you are using frozen semen you have to have it surgically implanted in the female, that is another $500-$900!
When the female finally comes into heat you have to begin progesterone testing to determine when she will ovulate and can be bred. These tests run, on average, $65 each and they should be done every other day until peak levels are reached, that's another $300-$400. Once she is ready and you have your chilled semen shipped to you the artificial insemination is another $150 per a.i.!
Then you wait four weeks to do an ultrasound to confirm pregnancy, that's another $85.
IF you are lucky and the female is confirmed pregnant you now have to purchase your supplies to prepare for your litter!
Hospital grade puppy Incubators are $1,000 and up, you will need towels, tube feeding supplies, heating pads, blankets (lots of them, it will be messy) medical supplies, milk replacement, puppy weight scale and the list goes on...
(you can add at least another $500 in supplies and food.)
Then comes the c-section, another $700-$1,500 if it's scheduled during business hours. If your female needs a late night or weekend emergency c-section you can double that!
MOST french and English bulldogs do not deliver naturally and after all the time and money invested it is safer to not risk the life of the mother or her litter to "see if she can deliver naturally." Bulldogs always need assistance from humans during labor as they have short flat faces and can have trouble tearing the sacks by themselves, not to mention puppies getting stuck! C-sections are the safest way to deliver for mom and her babies.
Some females will not have anything to do with the puppies once they are born, some are inexperienced in the matter and don't understand what to do with the pups, thus, countless hours are spent in assisting in raising the puppies.
You have to constantly watch the mother so she doesn't accidentally lay on one of her pups and suffocate it not even realizing it. The puppies need to be fed every 2 hours around the clock for the 1st couple weeks of their lives. This means you can kiss sleep goodbye for at least 2-3 weeks and if you have a job you better plan to take your vacation during this time! If mom's milk doesn't come in or she isn't producing enough milk, which is quite common, you will be tube feeding a litter of pups every 2-3 hours around the clock!
The average size of a french bulldog litter is only 2-4 puppies and 4-6 for English bulldogs! So, after the breeder chooses who they are keeping there may only be a few pups available for sale. If you do the math on what it cost to get that litter into the world and compare that to the amount of selling a few puppies you will see who is taking the bigger loss and why bulldogs are so expensive!
Goat milk
Baby cereal
Dyne vitamin supplement
My time. Up every 2-3 hours feeding puppies with mom 24 hours a day
Cleaning puppies
And their bedding
Cost of electricity for all the washing and the list goes on
At the end of the day the amount of time and money that is invested in PROPERLY raising and breeding bulldogs is astronomical compared to the cost of buying a QUALITY puppy from a reputable breeder! (Copied from another breeder, but still very accurate)
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Someone posted this and thought great to share for people to understand why Frenchies are so costly it's a good depiction of the amount of money that goes into a quality breeding, with 5 Star, white glove care for the puppies and momma.
$1,450 C-section
$550 6 week health check and shots
$2.99 per can for Farmina puppy food X 4 per day for mom for 3 weeks = $251.16
$2.99 per can for Farmina puppy food X 3 per day for puppies X 2 weeks = $125.58
$67.99 per bag for Farmina 26 pound bag X 2 for last 3 weeks = $136
$45 each for puppy DNA with AKC = $315
$239 for multiple litter registration
$39 for Artificial AI fresh Semen registration
$630 to Animal Genetics ($90 special for full color panel X 7 puppies)
$200 minimum for puppy pads for whelping pen
$50 minimum for baby wipes
$300 TCI
$4,125.72 + $4,000 stud fees + $600 semen shipping = $8,725.72, or $1,246.53 per puppy invested.
This does not include the 24 hour care, Every 2 Hours for feeding but in between I only got like 30 min of sleep. I sleep with them 24/7 until they go to their furever homes (8-10 weeks)! Making sure at nursing time that each puppy got a ni**le, then made sure mom licked them clean so they all pooped and pee’ed....then it was worrying that they got the best homes (paying an agency to run a background check), screening people (interview application), letting people in my home to pick up puppies or delivery to airport so my flight nanny can hand deliver them....I learned how much work, time, love etc it take in man hours and money to raise a healthy litter and nursing mom
And this doesn't include the cost of our female, health insurance, food (has only been fed farmina since we got her at 10 weeks) and immunizations /vet bills for 2 years on her.
We do not go cheap on any of our dogs or puppies. We only breed quality dogs, which we paid "quality" prices for, only use quality studs, which we pay "quality" stud fees for, only the best food and living conditions for our babies. All of these things cost a lot of money.
I guess we're not good at breeding, because we won't compromise on the best for our dogs and/or someone's future pet or breeding dog that we produce. Our profit margins per puppy may be much smaller than others, but we can sleep at night knowing that we've done our level best to provide our customers with a healthy baby.
